''Townscaper'' is an indie city builder video game. It was released for PC and Mac on the

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

platform in August 2021 by developer Oskar Stålberg. A port to the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

was released in August 2021, alongside which the Steam version left early access. The mobile version was released in October 2021. It was later ported to

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

, and

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

s (as a demo) in December 2021. It features low poly graphics and a simple, minimalist

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

Gameplay

''Townscaper'' has no inherent objective or story and has been described by developer Stålberg as "more of a toy" than a game. Users construct an island town by placing and removing colored blocks on an ocean. Various "rules" dictate these blocks' appearances, with some appearing as

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

s and others as balconies. This method of rule-based decoration allows

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

es,

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s, and stairways to be created without specific user instruction.

Setting

''Townscaper'' takes place on a large distorted grid set in an infinite sea. This allows for towns that feel more organic and unstructured when compared to similar games that are based on regular grids.

Development

''Townscaper'' was developed by Swedish developer Oskar Stålberg, who previously worked on ''

Bad North ''Bad North'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Plausible Concept (a game studio in Malmö, Sweden, founded by Oskar Stålberg and Richard Meredith) and published by Raw Fury. The game was released on August 20, 2018, for the Ninten ...

''. Stålberg gave a talk at the ''IndieCade Europe 2019'' event during development, showcasing some of the game's features, including terrain generation and procedural building design.

Reception

The PC edition of ''Townscaper'' received a critic score of 86% according to review aggregator ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

'', indicating generally favorable reviews. The Nintendo Switch edition received a score of 63%, indicating a mixed or average reception. Natalie Clayton of ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' wrote: "''Townscaper'' may not have the complexity of a Cities: Skylines, but its quaint towns littered with cobbled streets and old churches, dockyards and lighthouses feel more instantly homely than the sterile American-styled metropolises of "real" city-builders." Christian Donlan of ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' wrote: "...but met on its own terms, diving in when you've a few spare minutes to lay down a new neighbourhood, ''Townscaper'' is an absolutely joyous little time waster that's kept me busy since it first hit early access last year (opens in new tab). Now that it's out for real, I don't doubt it'll keep popping back in for a quick vacation for many months to come." Tilly Lawton of ''Pocket Tactics'' wrote: "''Townscaper'' serves up a gorgeous, illustrative art style, serene sound design, and a simple concept that’s sure to put you at ease."

References

External links